In many cases, the end of the year gives you time to step back and take stock of the last 12 months. This is when many of us take a hard look at what worked and what did not, complete performance reviews, and formulate plans for the coming year. For me, it is all of those things plus a time when I u...

NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwire) -- 01/11/13 -- According to online marketer and search engine enthusiast Rich Gorman, the act of conducting an online search is something many consumers have come to take for granted. Heading to Google.com, or using a Bing search toolbar affixed to a desktop browser, is the easiest thing in the world, yet it is crucial to remember that not all search experiences are created equal. According to Gorman, there are few search applications that are tailor-made for tablet users -- but search start-up Blekko has every intention of changing that. The company has announced the launch of its new tablet-based search app, Izik, and in so doing it has won a comment from Gorman.

In a new statement to the press, Gorman heralds the new Blekko app. "We have all grown so accustomed to thinking that online search begins and ends with Google that, when Blekko first appeared, many of us found it easy to write the company off," he says. "What the company has proven, though, is that while it may not be able to match Google in terms of search ubiquity, it can keep up in terms of innovation. In fact, Blekko has masterminded a search app that goes where Google has yet to really venture in any meaningful way -- into search that is tailored for tablet users."

Indeed, Blekko has made it clear that Izik -- which is pronounced like "Isaac" -- was designed for the sole purpose of providing a better and richer search experience for those using tablets. Blekko's CEO, Rich Skrenta, has stated his intention of helping tablet users recapture the same experience that desktop users had the first time they used Google, more than a decade ago. "In other words, Blekko is seeking to establish its own position at the forefront of tablet-based search," offers Gorman.

Gorman goes on to praise Blekko for understanding the implicit differences in consumer behavior, between desktop users and tablet users. "Blekko understands that those of us who are using desktop search engines are often in a very different category than those using their tablets," he remarks. According to Blekko, consumers using a desktop search engine usually have a very specific task in mind. Those using tablets, meanwhile, are often more interested in having fun and exploring all that the Web has to offer; tablet users may be sitting on a couch, wishing to indulge in whims and flights of fancy, but not necessarily seeking to accomplish any one thing. Additionally, the Blekko development team has noted the fact that typing in a tablet is less intuitive than typing on a desktop computer -- thus, tablet search inquiries tend to be just one or two short words, as opposed to longer phrases.

What Blekko has done with Izik, then, is to take its search capabilities and present them in a way that is more tablet-friendly. This includes greater touch sensitivity and an interface driven by images. Users who open the app can choose from a list of currently-popular search inquiries, or they can type their own; then, they are presented with dynamic category lists, reflecting their search terms. For example, someone who searches for "iPhone" might get an "images" category, a "shopping" category, and a category for Apple news; a search for "Justin Bieber" might keep the "images" heading but replace the tech-oriented listings with "celebrity gossip."

According to Gorman, the new Blekko search app could point to a bold new frontier in search. "Search engines loves to customize their services to meet the needs of different users groups, or to accommodate different geographic locations, but the idea of tailoring a search experience just to tablet users is a real innovation," he remarks. "It is just the kind of innovation that could keep Blekko way out in front of its competitors."

Rich Gorman is a search engine connoisseur, and he is also active on Google+.

ABOUT:

Rich Gorman is a marketing innovator, a serial entrepreneur, and a leading name in the direct response marketing field. He is also passionate about search engine technology, and blogs regularly about search-related topics at his Direct Response blog.

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